Doing my dong on banh mi? Pho sure!

[GarrettM]

T-2 days until we head off on our 10 day excursion to the Land of the Blue Dragon.

This trip came together in July when MrsGM took it upon herself to book cheap tickets on Scoot to Ho Chi Minh City, and then tell me about it afterwards.
I can't really complain though.

So here's the breakdown.
Sat Mar 3 PER-SIN on TR9 + six hours in the Ambassador Transit Hotel
Sun Mar 4 SIN-SGN - TR304 and SGN-DAD - VN126

6 nights at Emotion Villa Hoi An - food, walking, new clothes, a lot of relaxing by the pool, cheap beer, a tour or two. More food and more beer.

Sat Mar 10 DAD-SGN - VN125

3 nights at Christina's Saigon - Beatty's City Oasis. Taking in the sights, the War Remnants Museum, various other activities. More food, and more cheap beer.

Wed Mar 14 SGN-SIN - TR305 and SIN-PER - TR16

 

[GarrettM]

I'm not OVERLY bothered flying Scoot, although I'd prefer it to be a day flight into SIN. At least the child should sleep reasonably well. And it's her first time with her own seat, which should help.

Despite being underwhelmed with the idea of Vietnam initially, reading through other reports and doing some research has definitely improved my outlook.
We don't have anything actually cemented in as far as activities goes. Prefer to wing it as much as possible.
But I've identified some decent tailors, and am looking forward to getting at least one decent suit.

 

[love_the_life]

Enjoy the break. I'm sure you are well aware of the motor scooter thugs/bag snatchers in HCMC and will take extra precautions. I look forward to reading your TR though must say HCMC is not on my repeat visit list at all. Other parts I understand are wonderful.

 

[Pushka]

Enjoy the break. I'm sure you are well aware of the motor scooter thugs/bag snatchers in HCMC and will take extra precautions. I look forward to reading your TR though must say HCMC is not on my repeat visit list at all. Other parts I understand are wonderful.

Indeed. Happened to me. It’s one place where all valuables need to go under the shirt and safely hidden. We had done that all our trip but the last night I was wearing a bum bag. Cyclo driver and passenger slashed it off me as I walked across the road. Don’t wear jewellery even earrings. Basically look like a bit of a poor backpacker and they will pick on someone else.

Hoi An on the other hand is lovely.

 

[GarrettM]

Indeed. Happened to me. It’s one place where all valuables need to go under the shirt and safely hidden. We had done that all our trip but the last night I was wearing a bum bag. Cyclo driver and passenger slashed it off me as I walked across the road. Don’t wear jewellery even earrings. Basically look like a bit of a poor backpacker and they will pick on someone else.

Hoi An on the other hand is lovely.

Well that's not filling me with confidence. Thanks!

 

[Pushka]

Well that's not filling me with confidence. Thanks!

Better be safe, that’s all. They only want your possessions and not to harm you. If they can’t see them then they will move on. It’s common sense but we slacked on the last night.

 

[Major]

You will enjoy walking around the old parts of Hoi An

 

[Jacques Vert]

On board and looking forward to the TR. What's happened to JohnM?

 

[ALH]

Looking forward to your TR. I’ve had two extensive trips throughout Vietnam and loved every minute. As others have said, watch out for bag snatchers. Two cyclo drivers tried to rip us off in Saigon, but my travelling companion set the timer On his iPhone (smart move). Even so, over 2 months, I felt safe enough! The traffic is chaotic in the bigger cities but Hoi Ann will be pleasant for walking. An evening street walking food tour in Saigon is fabulous.

 

[LadyC]

Sounds like a fun trip - look forward to reading more.

 

[drron]

On board and looking forward to the TR. What's happened to JohnM?

Looks like I am in 1A this time.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Looks like I am in 1A this time.

Oh dear; you may be offloaded like that other Dr.

 

[GarrettM]

Just about all ready except for charging some electronics and such. Off to the airport in a couple of hours.

Not sure this will be a live report. It's tough to keep up on the road as you know.

But I'll be taking notes, and doing my best to make sure I don't forget anything interesting/pertinent.

Got my little mate here to help me out.

 

[cove]

Go for it GarrettM!

 

[GarrettM]

An uneventful flight to Singapore for the most part. We're now in SGN waiting for our connection to DAD.
I'll fill in some details tonight if I get time.
At 40c a beer I may not get time.

Last night's ride.

 

[craven morehead]

Coming along for the ride

 

[ALH]

..........Not sure this will be a live report. It's tough to keep up on the road as you know.

But I'll be taking notes, and doing my best to make sure I don't forget anything interesting/pertinent.

You should find lots of wifi everywhere you go. Free and Fast!

 

[GarrettM]

It's sure been a busy and long couple of days. But I'll do my best to catch up.
We had a smooth taxi ride to the airport, and check in went without any major issues. Except we were over our allowed baggage weight, and the visa for MissGM was incorrectly dated. Both issues were waved off at check-in. Phew.
TR9 PER-SIN. B787-9
Seats: 45DEF - the last row of the plane
Scheduled pushback: 1910 - Actual pushback:1912
Scheduled arrival: 0010 - Actual arrival: 0005

The most memorable moment of this flight occured at the gate and didn't involve us. An obnoxious English couple (him a Liverpool fan and her a Man United fan... the mind boggles) were ahead of us in the line joking with an Asian bloke in a Liverpool shirt. They had their names called a couple of times as we approached the boarding counter, and she kept waving her BP in the air shouting yes we're here in typically obnoxious fashion.
They got to the front of the line, and then realised they were at the wrong gate, as they were on the NZ flight to Auckland which was due to leave at the same time.
Talk about idiotic.
What really does my noodle is the fact they'd had their names called out repeatedly in the previous 30 minutes and never once realised what was going on. Morons.
Once they were out of the way we boarded without further incident.

 

[GarrettM]

My first time on the Dreamliner (I do not get out much), and it was good, although obviously there are better experiences available than Scoot.
But the leg room was more than adequate for a five hour flight.

Young miss enjoyed playing with the seatbelt, and quickly mastered taking it off and putting it back on herself. She was so over-tired and yet also excited about the entire experience she took well over an hour to fall asleep. Not helped by the fact they keep the cabin lights on for the first half or so of the flight. Not ideal.
But she never whined or made a huge fuss, so we can't complain too much.

I've developed a few impressions of Scoot as an LCC, but I'll save them for the end of the report I think.

 

[GarrettM]

Arrival at Changi as you'd expect. We were transiting so I had booked a slot at tha Ambassador Transit Hotel on level three of T2.
Not a lot to write home about. I can see how it'd be handy for long stopovers and was ok priced.
But the bed was rather hard, especially as we had three people in it. And the room itself was damn cold, despite my efforts with trying to adjust the aircon.

What really bugged me though was they give you a wifi password, but you have to log-in within an hour of issue.
I didn't realise that till the next morning, as I was not going to start interwebbing at 12.30am.
The bright side to that was I didn't have to find out about yet another pathetic home performance from Southampton until I was well and truly in Vietnam several hours later.